


Fifteen times goodbye

by Liligalaxy



Category: Ai no Kusabi
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-17
Updated: 2020-03-25
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:40:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22291228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Liligalaxy/pseuds/Liligalaxy
Summary: A girl has been killed. The police already has their suspect, but inspector Riki is not convinced. Is there something truly wrong with this case or is Iason just toying with him? And if so, is he the culprit or do they have a killer on the lose?
Relationships: Iason Mink/Riki
Comments: 5
Kudos: 29
Collections: Ai no Kusabi Creative Challenge 2020





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Ai no Kusabi creative challange for January with the promtpt Icy Fire.  
> Very much inspired by noir movies.  
> Part 1/?

It was already dark outside when he arrived at the scene. It was pouring buckets and the thin material of his coat was doing his best to keep him dry, but he could feel the dampness begin to crawl its way to his skin. It was cold, unusually so for that season, but in those days one could never know.  
“Inspector?”  
Riki puffed his last breath of smoke and put the cigarette out under his shoe, down in the dirt. That was the one vice he could allow himself to indulge into without a second thought.  
In front of him, trembling in a possibly even thinner jacket than his own, was a kid, probably fresh from training, who was precariously balancing an umbrella, case files and a cup of coffee in one hand. The other was raised to his forehead in a timid salute.  
“Where’s Guy?” Riki asked. He knew his friend was the one in charge of the case, but he was nowhere in sight. The only thing he could see was a dark and rough terrain, once a lively park, now the scene of a murder.  
“Special officer Guy is waiting for you in the tent with the… Ah… Ah-choo!” the kid sneezed loudly, wiping his nose on the sleeve of his uniform.  
Riki sighed, taking a handkerchief from his pocket and giving it to him.  
“Keep it” he said, his voice cool and low.  
He set out towards the tent without waiting for the kid, he knew what he was there for, and entered. Inside he found his oldest and probably best friend, Guy, sitting on a wooden chair taken from who knows where, his face red with cold. The wrinkle on his forehead told Riki Guy had had a rough night. As soon as the two men saw each other they clasped hands, refraining from their usual hug.  
They were not alone.  
“Details?” Riki asked, making an effort to keep his eyes on Guy. He felt an amused gaze on his neck, but he was determined to do things as he was used to. First, case details, then, the suspect.  
“Victim was a twenty years old girl named Mimea. Five foot four, short dyed hair, green eyes. She was a student A Uinversity. Stabbed to death, precisely…” Guy looked down at his notes, a labyrinth of words that didn’t look more readable than a pool of ink “Fifteen times. Somebody must’ve held a real grudge on her”  
“Witnesses?”  
“Park keeper. Says he saw this man walking near the spot at midnight, roughly when the girl died.”  
Finally, and with outmost calm, Riki let himself turn his eyes and there he was: bathed in a pool of electric light, their suspect. His appearance was striking: long golden hair framed a perfectly oval shaped face, almost like the halo of an angel, with two eyes so blue one might think he had trapped the sky inside them. He could’ve been one of the most eye-catching man Riki had ever seen if not for two things: his expression, one he had seen one too many times on the face of gamblers and thieves; the curve of his smirk said “you have no idea what I have in store for you”. Riki hated those types.  
The second thing, and the most remarkable, was the stain of blood on his damp white shirt.  
“Name?” he asked, sitting opposite of the man.  
He briefly looked in Guy’s direction, motioning for him to go. If there was something everybody knew back at the police station was that one, Riki was a magnet for trouble; he had lost count how many times he had been just this close to death in the last month. That meant he worked alone, no exception. And two, that he always got the truth out of people, no matter the cost.  
Mimea was the daughter of some rich business man who was now understandably very angry and demanding of a head to cut off. If that blonde guy was their culprit, Riki had no doubt he would not be heading to prison, but to an unknown location to die very painfully and very slowly.  
He didn’t really care. Death was something no more than amusing to him by now; came with the line of work.  
“Name” he repeated demandingly, but still calm.  
The man raised his chin, studying him for a long second, then he replied.  
“Iason”  
“Iason what?”  
“Iason Mink”  
Riki raised an eyebrow. He had a low voice, but unlike his own it was smooth, inviting. Iason Mink was definitely one of those guys girls would fall on their knees for.  
“General information?”  
Iason laid his back on the chair and smoothed his hair away from his face, his face easing back in a neutral expression.  
“I’ve already given my testimony to your friend there, is there any reason why I am still here, agent…?”  
Riki cocked his head, bemused, but ignored the invitation.  
“You know you are being suspected for murder, right? You are going to stay here until someone comes to bring you to the police station. And it’s inspector to you.”  
“Ah!” Iason smacked his lips “How delightful, from a special agent to an inspector. This girl must have been the daughter of a real hotshot. I suppose I don’t have any choice but to repeat everything, do I?”  
“You do not”  
“Well then, I’m a bachelor student at A university.”  
“The same university as the victim then.” Riki scribbled down on his notebook the info, sure he was not going to be able to decipher Guy’s handwriting later at the station “And tell me, mister Mink, what were you doing last night at the crime scene? Kind of odd for a bachelor student to be out so late”  
Iason’s smirk came back, now accompanied by a flicker of amusement in his otherwise icy eyes.  
“Please, you can call me just Iason. And yes, odd for a bachelor student, if alone. But I wasn’t. Me and the other Philosophy students had been invited to a book conference by our professor and we had decided to stay for dinner. The professor kindly accepted to walk me home”  
“Do you live in the same area?”  
“No, but we were discussing matters of my degree and he said he could always take a cab”  
Riki finished to jot down his notes then looked up. Iason’s features were relaxed and so was his body. If his instincts proved him right, and they usually did, then the man hadn’t been lying up until now.  
“Can you recall what went down that night?”  
“As I already said to special agent Guy, I was walking down the path across the park with my professor when we heard a woman scream. It was dark and we couldn’t see anything unusual, but the professor told to run and call the police, and so I did. Half an hour later I was detained for suspected murder. Life is funny sometimes, isn’t it, inspector?”  
“Your professor? You never saw him after he told you to run?”  
“No, I immediately got out of the park and called the police. I have no idea where he is”  
Suspicious, Riki thought, but not unlike other suspects he had proven innocent before. He relaxed back on his chair and put his notebook in the inner pocket of his coat.  
“One last question”  
“Interrogation already over? I was starting to have fun” Iason said in a mocking tone. He was obviously tired and his clothes were dirty and wet, wrinkly where the police agents had grabbed him to take him inside the tent. It was clear the man just wanted to go home.  
“What’s with the blood?”  
Iason looked down at his shirt, as if just now noticing the dry blood on the garment. Then he slowly raised his hand: it was bandaged, a deep red stain near the palm.  
“Rushing out of the park I tripped and hurt my hand. I wiped on my shirt without thinking, but someone out there must be thinking this is the victim’s remains, don’t they?”  
Riki shook his head. Even a newbie would now that that mere stain was too little blood for someone who had been stabbed fifteen times. So why was this man here?  
He sat up and walk towards the entrance of the tent, the gears in his head turning at high speed, but before he could get out Iason’s voice called for him.  
“Inspector?”  
Riki turned, a cigarette halfway to his lips, and suddenly he felt unable to move. He could see, behind Iason’s blue irises, the icy flames of anger. In his life he had dealt with all types of angry people: the ones who exploded in rage, the ones who got violent, the ones who threw temper tantrums… but oh, beware of the ones who don’t say anything. They’ll strike when you’re the most vulnerable and leave you to bleed in a dark alley without a second thought.  
“Care for a name?”  
Riki barely registered the question when he was already answering.  
“Riki. Name’s Riki”  
And then, before he could be made to say anything more, he left the tent behind him, setting out in the heavy rain.  
That case was going to be a pain in the ass.


	2. Something somewhere

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning, unedited chapter up ahead. It will be revised soon. Until then, enjoy you reading :)  
> Part 2\?

“What do you think?”  
It was almost four in the morning when Riki finally got to go home. He had been hunted down by police officers and the forensic all night, going over the case details an excruciating amount of times. The where many reason why he had abandoned the police branch in favor of becoming an inspector and paper work was one of them. He had never been good a sitting still behind a desk, he had been his school professor’s nightmare, and when the opportunity to switch to field work had presented himself he had taken it with both hands, but that didn't mean that also had its drawbacks.  
When he arrived home he was drenched from head to toe, the icy trickle of the droplets reminding him of those two blue eyes that had not stopped looking at him, even when they had taken Iason away to the police station. He could feel them stuck to his nape, forever watching, observing, analyzing his every move.   
He scratched his neck. He didn’t like it. He didn’t like it one bit.  
“Nothing a hot shower can’t fix” he told himself, but when he got to his apartment he found someone already waiting for him.  
“Guy!” he exclaimed, surprised and pleasantly so.   
The man, now bare of his uniform, had left his long dark hair lose and was balancing a bottle of wine and two cups in his hands.   
“You up for a drink?” he asked.  
Riki smiled and opened the door, letting him in.   
Back in their academy days they had been the best of friends, then something more, then strangers. It had been hard separating from the only person he had thought he could truly count on, but with growing sometimes comes the growing apart. When they were seventeen they had been filled with a love so innocent it was hard not thinking about it fondly, but at twenty they had gotten on different paths, ones that would led them to break up and never see each other again until much later when they would rekindle their friendship over a glass of wine, much like in that moment.   
Riki’s apartment was spartan to say the least, but it had everything he needed: a comfortable bed, a tiny kitchen, a TV that would pick and choose when to turn on and a large desk, full of papers, pens, half eaten tobacco sticks and cigarette buds.  
They sat at the minuscule kitchen table, popping the bottle open and generously pouring themselves a glass. Then Guy asked the fatal question.  
“What do you think?”  
He always asked him that. What are you thinking Riki with that mysterious head of yours? He had to repress a smile.  
“About what? The innocent girl stabbed not one, but fifteen times, or the fact that, apart from her body we couldn't find anything else?” he downed his glass then asked for a refill with a wave of his pinkie “I mean, have you ever seen a girl going around so late at night without her bag, her wallet and even her cell phone? That’s fishy if you ask me. And then the murder weapon. That too is gone”  
He was irritated. He liked things that made sense, and that case reeked of complications. He didn’t even want to know how many hours of sleep he was going to loose because of it. Better living in the bliss of ignorance, if not for now.  
“Yeah, we searched the whole area, trash bins and everything but nothing showed up. But for once I was talking about our suspect. How was he? When I interrogated him he barely responded. He looked… bored”  
Riki’s eyebrows shot up, then dipped down in a frown. Yes, Iason Mink was definitely an odd person, but they had talked plenty and he surely hadn’t sounded bored.  
“I don’t know. He looked sincere when he told me he just ran and called the police, but you never know. The kids are starting to get better at lying these days. And that professor, the one that was supposed to be with him, have you gotten his name?”  
Guy nodded then sat up and went to the entrance to take something from his coat. For a split second Riki let himself admire the curve of his back. The one he remembered was smooth, almost a straight line from his neck to his waist, while the one he saw now was interrupted by the shape of the muscles he had put on. He was almost a head taller than him, sturdy like a special agent must be, but his face still held the trace of childhood gentleness he had loved so deeply before.   
When Guy turned though, all those silly thoughts evaporated, the image of the poor girl lying on the ground with fifteen holes in her stomach flashing before his eyes. He needed to get to the bottom of that case, one way or another.  
“His name is Katze. He teaches general psychology at A University. Among his students are our suspect, Iason Mink, and the victim, Mimea. The suspect claims to have never talked to her, but to have seen her in class from time to time.”  
“So they were strangers”  
“Apparently so. We’d have to talk to the other students to confirm it. We’ll think about it tomorrow”  
Riki glanced towards the window, his third glass of wine twirling between his fingers.  
“Tomorrow is today Guy”  
And as he said that, the sky turned deep red, the lens of air pollution making it seem like the clouds were on fire. The sun was rising. Time to get going.  
“Where to?” Guy asked, his coat already at hand.  
Riki downed his last sip of wine then joined him at the door. How many times had they done that before? How many cases solved just like that? The two of them against the darkness of the underworld.  
“Somewhere you won’t like”

Guy groaned for probably the tenth times in a row and Riki had to stop himself from pinching him where it hurt.  
There was only one place where one could taste the sweet flavor of a strawberry martini and get his information at the crack of dawn and that was at Daryl’s. Riki had met the kid when he could still pass as one: innocent face, angelic smile, knife tucked in the right sock.  
If anything was going on in the shadows, Daryl would now. And if Daryl knew, Riki would soon too. After all, Daryl owed him a lot more than he could repay.  
With the money Riki had given to him couple years back Daryl had opened his bar, a nice and quiet place that sold a mean Bellini and that was mostly populated by a troupe of drag queens that lived right above.  
When Riki and Guy showed up, they were immediately greeted by a chorus of familiar voices and a beautiful woman in a long blue dress came up to them and kissed them both on the cheek. Priscilla, birth name Lucio, was a lovely actress by day, cunning spy by night. She could get a rock to talk back, just batting her long eyelashes and asking pretty please.   
Riki and Guy greeted her warmly and asked where Daryl was. That was when Guy started to sigh. He hated that place, because someone like him should have never even knew about it, but he loved the company. That made Riki smile and him, in fact, sigh.  
Priscilla accompanied them to a room in the back where Daryl was waiting for them. He was sitting on his favorite rocking chair, his hands full of documents Riki didn’t even want to know how illegal they were.   
“Gentlemen” he gestured for them to sit and for Priscilla to close the door behind her. She always listened to their meeting, managing to blend in with the background even in that striking dress. Like a fly on the wall, Daryl always said.  
“I suppose you came here for that girl”  
Riki arched an eyebrow and watched silently as Guy did the same. How did Daryl knew about the murder already… No, Riki, you really don’t want to know.  
“Yes. I was hoping you could tell us something more about the people involved”  
Daryl nodded and, as if on cue, Priscilla stepped forward.  
“The victim, Mimea, was the daughter of a guy who calls himself Raoul. He started is business in the medical field when he was in his twenties and made a huge fortune with some innovative medical equipment. Not much is known about him, aside from the rare interviews. No shady background, no known enemies. Mimea’s the same. Normal girl, no official boyfriend nor girlfriend, decent grades. Nothing major”  
Riki bit his lower lip, wishing he could take out one of his trusty Lucky Strikes. If Mimea was just a normal girl, why has she died? And moreover in that way…  
“What about the professor?” Guy asked, breaking Riki’s train of thought.  
Priscilla looked back at Daryl, who shrugged and nodded imperceptibly.  
“Well… I could find even less on him. His names is Katze, graduated with honors from K Private University and transferred here soon after. He started teaching three years ago. There has been no complaints from the school or reported by the students but…”  
“But?” Riki pressed. Something was bugging him and he couldn’t pin point what it was, which made him uneasy. He felt once again watched.  
“Someone down at the Black Market claims to have seen him just last week”  
Riki’s whole body clenched.  
“Buying or selling?”  
Priscilla looked at him hesitantly, her long red hair twirling between her fingers  
“This is the strange part. Neither. The guy I talked to said he was looking around, but didn’t seem really interested.”  
Then why was he there? To know about the existence of the Black Market you have to really care for something to find there, or you’ll miss it completely. Why was a respected university professor down at the Black Market just window-shopping? There had to be more to that story.  
Guy was half way through the door when Daryl called Riki back. The inspector looked back at his friend and said to wait for him outside with Priscilla.   
“Is there something more?” Riki asked.  
Daryl nodded, his expression as neutral as ever, but after all those years Riki had grown to recognize fear by the smell.  
“Your suspect. You haven’t asked about him”  
He had been waiting for that moment.   
“Why? What do you know about Iason Mink?”  
Daryl rocked back on his chair, his hands joined above his knees.   
“As you know we keep tabs on anyone who could cause us problems. Two years ago one of my girls reported back that someone had beaten the head of the Jeeks gang to a pulp. Of course I thought of an internal feud, but she insisted it had been a blond guy never seen before. You get where I’m going”  
“You mean…”  
“If you ask of a list of names to never mention in the underworld, Iason Mink is at the top written in red ink. Someone from the gang had picked on him thinking he was just another rich kid from the Upper Quarter and he simply set their lair aflame. Of course, I can’t prove if the rumors are true, but there’s too many people talking for it to be completely fake.”  
Riki’s mind went into overdrive. He could still see the flames dancing in the man's eyes the day before, he could still feel his tongue giving in to the simple question and saying his name.   
When Riki joined Guy at the exit there was a bitter taste in his mouth.  
“What did he say?” Guy asked, a hint of anxiousness in his voice.   
Riki didn’t respond and Guy didn’t pry, but they both knew somewhere something was cooking. After a long pause, Riki pulled up his coat’s collar and set off towards the police station.  
“Let’s go. I need a smoke”


	3. Angel eyes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After much thought here's the new chapter. I reccomend to listen to the song that gives this chapter its name "Angel eyes". Happy reading :)

The house was incredible, in the only way rich people could make it to be. Even calling it a house was a downplay: it was a mansion. Built by some nouveau riche a decade ago before it went to sale two month after the inauguration aprty, seemingly because the owner was already bored of its marbled floors and pure crystal chandeliers.   
While standing in the enormous hall, which looked more like an amphitheatre with double stairs going to the first floor and a long velvet carpet deadening his steps, one could only feel minuscule.  
“Remind me why we’re here again?” Guy whispered.  
Riki shook his head, words not wanting to leave his mouth.  
A few hours earlier, not an ounce of sleep in their system, they had gone back to the police station only to find their colleagues idly playing cards.  
“Where’s our witness?” Guy had asked.  
“Gone home.” One had replied, shrugging “We couldn’t get a warrant and he wanted to sleep in his bed. Can’t blame him”   
After almost half an hour of harsh scolding, the two officers that’d had the misfortune to happen under Guy’s hands had run for their life to get a warrant and another half an hour later Riki and Guy were escorted by an anonymous man in livery into the most lavish and luxurious construction they had ever seen.   
And there, at the top of the double stairs, stood its landlord: Iason Mink, on the outside a simple bachelor student, but on the inside… Riki didn’t want to think about it yet. He had changed from his bloodied clothes, likely taken as evidence, into a stylish pair of tailored black pants and a new shirt, unbuttoned just enough to reveal a delicate set of collarbones. Riki’s gaze though was glued to Iason’s eyes: from the icy flames of anger he now wore a mask of complete and unperturbed calmness.  
“Gentlemen, how nice seeing you again” he said as a salute, but his expression lacking the warmth necessary for it to be genuine “I suppose you have a very good reason to pay me visit after my five hours interrogation just yesterday”  
His smile was welcoming, but the aggressive note in his voice wasn’t left unnoticed to Riki and Guy’s ears, the latter immediately taking out the warrant from his coat.  
“We still have a couple questions for you, mister Mink” Guy said.  
Iason took a brief look at the slip of paper, scanning it with a questioning gaze, then returned to the agent and retorted the same look to Guy.  
“Very well, but I don’t like being outnumbered.” He said, flipping his long hair over his shoulder “Special agent Guy, you can go. Inspector Riki will hold the interrogation”  
Without another word he turned and vanished behind a set of heavy wooden doors, leaving the two men looking at one another, their faces a mask of shock.  
“That fucking piece off-“  
“Leave it Guy” Riki interrupted, shaking his head “We’re on enemy’s territory; for now, we’ll play by his rules.”  
Leaving his partner at the door, Riki took one last look at the entrance door, wondering why that day he hadn’t chose a less stressful profession like fishing instead of entering the police force, then followed Iason into another room.

Whatever Riki had expected, that wasn’t what he found. The room was spacious, the walls hidden behind cabinets full of expensive bottles of wine and other various types of spirits while two identical chaise longue sat in the middle, separated by a long table made of fine glass. No windows, no exit aside from the door now closed behind his back. Riki scanned the room for a sign of a hidden entrance but he found none.  
Iason was comfortably draped on one of the sofas, one glass of red wine in his hand while the other was signing him to come sit in front of him. A twin glass was waiting for him on the table, which Riki took but didn’t sip from, and he sat, taking off his coat and placing it on the back.  
“Château Margaux” Iason said, his voice mellow and low “You’ll excuse me for not choosing a better year than 1978, but the other bottles are still in the cellar and I didn’t want to make you wait”  
The word cellar ringed in Riki’s mind, but he put the thought aside. Every rich mansion had a cellar, it didn’t necessarily mean underground business, even though he knew Iason was probably part of one. He still didn’t touch his wine.  
“Well then, shall we start?”  
“Ready as you are” Iason put down his now empty glass and reclined back, twisting his hair into a curl around his index finger “But I warn you I get bored easily, especially after being asked questions I have already answered”  
“They tell me I am a very entertaining man” Riki replied, without missing a beat. He had encountered an infinite number of men and women who thought they could outsmart him, but he was still there and they were now behind bars “I’d like to tell me everything you know about your professor, Mr. Katze, and the relationship between you two”  
The blond man stopped his hand mid-air, his hair slipping out of his grasp onto his shoulder. But just as Riki thought “Bullseye!” a dangerous smile appeared on Iason’s face.  
“I met professor Katze when he was recommended to me by the headmaster. My thesis is based on the effects of childhood trauma on the psyche and he was told to be an expert, so we began to work together to complete my bachelor. We sometime meet in outside of class for additional consultations and he takes us students to dinners to discuss about our work” he said, cocking his head to the side “Our relationship is strictly academic”  
Riki jotted down a few keywords on his notepad, his eyes careful not to meet his. He had been enchanted once, he wouldn’t let it happen again.  
“Have you been in contact with him after the incident?”  
“You mean the tragic murder? No, I tried, but his cell phone must be dead.”  
“Must be” Riki sneered. There were five members of the police force out there in search of this famous professor Katze, but none had had the luck to find him so far. “Any idea of where he could be?”  
“None at all, I’m truly sorry”  
He was being toyed with, Riki knew, but he couldn’t let it bother him. The faster he got his answers the sooner he could go home.  
“Can you tell me anything about the victim, Miss Mimea?”  
“Careful Inspector, that is question I already answered” Iason waved a finger in his face, almost as if he was reprimanding a misbehaving child “Think of something creative or our little chat stops here”  
Good God. Riki glanced at his watch; he didn’t have time for this.   
“The victim was one of Mr. Katze’s students, that we know, but why wasn’t she with you at dinner that night?”  
Iason’s smile widened enough to bare his teeth.   
“Ah, that’s much better. You see, only a selected few of us could go to these dinners. Let’s say we are a total of twenty-five bachelor students, only the best five or six get to go.”  
“And I suppose Miss Mimea hadn’t been invited”  
“No, she was not.” Iason grimaced, like the sole thought of her made him itchy “She was very behind with her thesis and her grades were honestly tragic. Professor Katze took her in because of a letter of recommendation came from above and made him unable to say no, but he refused to do anything further for her.”  
Riki circled the word letter and connected it to father, because who else could’ve recommended a terrible student to one of the best universities of the country and got her in, then put his pen down and stretched his fingers. He was very tired and a night of no sleep hadn’t helped; he was in desperate need of a good cup of coffee, but he didn’t trust Iason to make his a non-spiked one so he didn’t ask.  
“Is there anything else you want to tell me?” he asked.  
It was a routine question, rarely answered with more than a “no” and he was ready to call a cab and go home when suddenly Iason got up, refilled his glass and crossed the room to sit right next to him, his arm relaxed on the back of the sofa right behind his shoulders. Riki suppressed the urged to immediately distance him from the man and instead looked him dead in the eyes, but what he found there was not what he had expected. Like that entire day, Iason Mink was full of surprises as he leaned in, his shirt revealing smooth white skin down to his navel, and whispered:  
“There are a couple things I’d like to say, Riki” his name rolling on his tongue so softly it made him waver “But I suppose this isn’t the day. Next time I’ll be the one calling; if you want answers you better pick up”  
His face was so close Riki could feel his breath trickling down his cheek and when his hand sneaked his way to his breast pocket Riki’s brain ringed with alarm bells so loud he felt his whole body shake. And then, like nothing ever happened, Iason got up and all the air left in Riki’s lungs followed him out. He was ushered him outside the room without another word and left to his tangled thoughts.   
One minute later he was on the streets, waiting for a cab to take him to the police station, coat under his arm and head full of static. When he finally came to be he was almost arrived to his destination. Without stopping to talk to anyone he stormed into his office, locked to the door and took out an envelope from his pocket.   
What he found inside was… truly something else.

Dear professor,  
I am now free, single as mismatched sock. No more boyfriend, no more barriers between you and I if not your refusal to accept our love.   
Every time I see you in class, your figure so upright and your smile so wonderful, my stomach flutters and my heart screams with both pain and joy. I long for you and I noticed I’m not the only one, but your eyes settle only on mine, don’t deny it, I can feel your stare even when I’m the one not looking.  
Last week I sent you flowers, the roses you said you liked, have you received them? I imagine us placing them in a vase in our beautiful home. We could have one, you know, a lovely home to call ours and go back to once married.  
I assure you, not your scar nor those words I know you didn’t mean will deter me on my journey. One day you’ll see my way and accept my love as unconditional as I offer it.  
Forever yours,  
Mimea  
Ps: with this letter comes a box of your favourite pastries, please taste them and tell me what you think. I’ve prepared them myself with lots of love. XOXO


	4. Liar's lips

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again :) this chapter is kind of shorter, but I'm planning something big for the next one so it had to be, sorry. I hope you'll enjoy it anyway. Thank you to those who left comments on my previous chapters, you guys are lovely <3

As soon as Riki stepped into the room, the guard officer felt the iciness of dread trickle down his spine. The man, famously known for his cool character and his mysterious aura, was in a fowl mood. More than that, it seemed had he not been smoking down a pack of cigarettes he’d been cracking the bones of his unknown enemies between his fingers.

But Riki had a very good reason to be furious: Katze.

The man had been shelling away from the police’s clutch for two whole days before they had been able to locate him inside his second, more demure house in the city’s outskirts. And not because the very few remaining braincells of the investigation force had finally began to operate, but because the man himself had contacted the police to finally testify. Unfortunately, the professor had failed to mention the house was completely booby trapped and Guy had left with a broken arm and a burn mark on his thigh.

Now Riki stood behind the one-way mirror, peering into the room at the man, a scowl on his face. Oh, if only looks could kill, he thought.

The interrogation room was a grey square with no more then a table and two chairs anchored to the floor and a lonely security camera up on the ceiling. Riki had always found it depressing enough, but that day it was particularly gloomy given the presence of the man inside it. Katze sat with his back straight, his hands laced together on his knee like an old aristocrat. Or perhaps like someone that had been schooled with whips and wood rulers.

He had dark red hair down to his chin, two piercing hazel eyes and the sort of looks that could make any stranger linger in thought while watching. Hidden behind his locks was an ugly scar right on his left cheek where the face met the jaw; it was serrated and long, but it had healed as good as it could and it was obviously very old. And yet what kept Riki from entering was nothing of his aesthetic, but his uninterested air, the way his eyes were roaming the room as if he could not have cared less to be the prime suspect of murder.

Finally, Riki entered the room, the smell of cigarettes and aftershave chasing after him, and sat opposite of the professor. He opened his casefile and took out a photo of Mimea’s poor corpse. Fifteen ragged holes pierced her body and her face was a mask of horror. Riki himself had to repress a frown at the sigh; still, Katze’s expression remained unchanged.

“Her name was Mimea” he said, voice cool and low “I believe you should recognize her, mister Katze”

The man looked at the picture one second more, then lifted his gaze.

“Yes, she was one of my students.” He replied curtly.

“Can you tell me where you were three nights ago and what where you doing?”

“My alibi then”

“Correct”

Katze’s lips pursued in a tight grimace. He had a way of speaking like he wanted to say something more, but couldn’t.

“I had invited some of my students for dinner, to discuss their plans and future. It was getting rather late, so I took off with one of them, as his thesis was the next due, and I agreed to accompany him home.” He said “While we were crossing the park we heard a scream. It sounded rather panicked, so I asked my student to go fetch the police while I went to see what was going on”

“Alone?” Riki asked perplexed.

“You see, I’ve been practicing self-defence more than the average person and I hadn’t heard any gunshots, so I thought myself to be the safer option.

As I was saying, I rushed to the place I thought the scream came from, but when I got there I found myself the unseen voyeur of a couple fornicating in the bushes, so I called my student on the phone, which was unfortunately dead”

“Dead? How did he contact the police then?”

“Phone booth. I believe they are still in service, are they not?” Katze said, a sly tone in his voice that made Riki’s awful mood rise once more. “After that I went home. I had lecture to prepare for next week, you see. When I heard of the murder at the radio I immediately contacted the police to offer my testimony”

Riki looked at the professor, fists tight in his pockets.

“And in doing so you injured six police men, one with severe burns. Is there any reason your house, actually, I should say your second house, was full of laser alarms and trapdoors?” he growled. He didn’t want to lose his cool, but that was ridiculous. That wasn’t a comedy cartoon, it was a murder case for fuck‘s sake!

“That is my grandfather’s legacy. He was very fond of games and pranks and always loved to surprise his guests. I just turned his creations into intruder’s alarms.”

Riki felt himself ready to plant a sound fist on the redhead’s face, but thought better of it. First the testimony, then the violence.

“Mister Katze, the couple you saw… fornicating, as you said, did you recognize any of the two? Because if your testimony is true, right after you got out of the park our victim was murdered.”

Katze opened his mouth and then, right then, Riki understood many things all at once.

“I can’t say for sure, it was dark that night, but the girl had hair dyed the shade miss Mimea had. If I were to guess, I’d say it was her”

One: Katze was lying.

“The other person I’m sorry to say I have no idea who it could be”

Two: Someone was keeping him from talking.

“Are we done? I have said everything I know”

Three: unlike Iason’s icy blue eyes, Katze’s ones shone bright in the pallid room like two moons against a starless sky, and reflected on their surface was the silhouette of the person pulling the string of this murder.

Riki felt the smooth texture of Mimea’s letter, hidden deep inside his pocket, but kept it there. His gut feeling told him that wasn’t the right moment and so he pushed it deeper inside the fabric and left it there, muffling the impression of pushing Mimea herself alongside the paper into silence.

“Mister Katze, one last question. Could you please tell me the name of the student you were with?”

_Oh, if only looks could kill._

“I don’t see why not. His name is Iason Mink. He’s one of my brightest students”

“Very well”

As a prime murder suspect Katze was to be interrogated some more by other people so Riki left the precinct and went to get his third cup of coffee of the morning. Sitting at his usual spot he let the sunshine kiss his tanned skin and lull him into quietude. He jotted down on his notebook everything he knew so far, which unfortunately wasn’t much, and took out his phone.

_“Next time I’ll be the one calling; if you want answers you better pick up”_

Those words still resonated in his ears, alongside the shiver that had ran down his back as Iason’s lips had come so close they could’ve almost touched his ear. His face, long blond hair cascading down a perfectly oval face, was forever burned in his mind, so much so that when he closed his eyes he could feel himself once more on Iason’s couch, the man delicate fingers pressed against his shirt to sneak the letter in his pocket. In that moment he had felt a rush of adrenaline like never before in his career. He had chased down armed men and women, rode on the top of a car behind a wanted criminal, he had even infiltrated a drug circle once, but that evening in Iason’s manor had been…

Don’t think about it, he scolded himself. Iason is the least likely to be the murder right now, and that’s it.

But just as the thought crossed his mind his phone screen lit up and he immediately brought it to his ear.

“Riki’s here, who’s speaking?”

After a short silence, a stifled laugh came through and Riki immediately recoiled in his chair.

“Riki, I told I would call”

“What do you want?” Riki asked angrily. He didn't have times for games. Was Iason watching him from somewhere? He couldn’t have known, could he?

“It’s not a matter of what I want, it is you who’s been searching for answers. It only comes down to if you want them or not”

“You know I do” he scowled “What’s the price?”

“Cunning guy. But you’re in luck, the only thing I want is to have a nice chat with you over dinner. My place, eight o’clock. Don’t be late”

An “or else” hung in the air as Iason hung up, leaving Riki with a mix of dread and anticipation coursing through his veins. He took one last sip of his coffee and, as he exited the café, took out his pack of cigarettes only to find it empty.

A flowery curse escaped his lips.

That was going to be a memorable evening.


End file.
